THE BALLOON MAN

Fair food a family affair for traveling Texans

 

Journal-Courier/GREG OLSON
Linda and Bill McKinney, longtime food vendors from Hughes Springs, Texas, have been coming to the Western Illinois Fair in Griggsville since 1962
from: myjournalcourier.com
By GREG OLSON, Journal-Courier
June 29, 2013
For a few days in June, Griggsville is home for a traveling Texas family, and it’s been that way for generations.
This weekend, Bill and Linda McKinney of Hughes Springs, Texas, are marking their 52nd consecutive year of bringing their food service business to the Western Illinois Fair.
The fifth generation of McKinneys is now involved with the family business — McKinney Food Services — selling funnel cakes, lemonade and a variety of other fair fare at an estimated 200 events a year around the Midwest and South. But they say the Western Illinois Fair is one of their favorite stops.
“This was the first fair we worked in Illinois, and in that first year of 1962, we brought our cook house, which was a 30-foot by 50-foot canvas tent,” Bill McKinney said. “We sold a hamburger basket with fries and cole slaw for 65 cents and corn dogs for 25 cents.” Today, the McKinneys get $4 for a regular corn dog and $5 for a jumbo dog.
Linda McKinney recalled the family’s first visit to the fairgrounds. “It was on the Fourth of July, and we waded in water over our ankles, but the people in Griggsville were super and we fell in love with the community,” she said. “I have made lifelong friends from the Griggsville area, and we try to meet three times a year.”
Bill and Linda McKinney are the backbone of the food service operation, which includes their four sons, Adam, Tim, Shawn and Ron, as well as a nephew and a grandson. For their attendance at Illinois fairs, Bill and Linda McKinney received a Friends of Illinois Fairs Award from state fair officials in January.
Besides the Western Illinois Fair, McKinney Food Services attends fairs in Morgan, Sangamon, Schuyler and Macoupin counties and the Illinois State Fair.
“We have always enjoyed coming to Griggsville because they put on the best demo derby in the Midwest,” Shawn McKinney said. “They also put on a school bus demo derby that is just as exciting.”
Another mainstay at the Western Illinois Fair since the late 1980s has been Freddy Miller of Greenbriar, Ark., owner and operator of Miller Spectacular Shows, which offers rides, food and games.
“We mostly go to larger fairs, such as the Heart of Illinois Fair in Peoria and the DuQuoin State Fair, but the Western Illinois Fair is one of my favorites,” Miller said. “The people here in Griggsville are very familiar with me and the fair board is like family to us.”
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